'White Show' able to amuse and unsettle at the same time

So he didn't intend any disrespect, or even a Banksy-style protest against the commercialization of art, when he took a can of black spray paint and stenciled "A LITTLE BIT" on the glass of a framed print of "The Magpie," a snowy nature scene by the Impressionist.

"I really tried to honor what Monet was doing," the artist says of the piece, currently on display in "The White Show."

The exhibit — works by 40 artists responding to the question "What is White?" — was organized by b.a.l.m. (beauty, art and life movement) in Lawrence, Kan. Hausmann, whose work was included in the first incarnation of the exhibit, then decided to bring it to Hausmann Millworks, a gallery and studio complex he opened last year, for Contemporary Art Month.

So far, the exhibit, which opened March 6, has had such a strong response that Hausmann decided to extend its run another month. It will be up through the end of April.

Initially, Hausmann says, he got involved with the show as a favor to friends.

"And then I figured out, 'Oh, my god! They've got guys who are in the Whitney in this show,'?" he says. "I have no idea how they got the people they did. They just got some major hitters."

Hausmann dug into his own pocket to bring the exhibit here "because I was like, 'Yes, I believe in this.'?" He also added San Antonians Rolando Briseño, John Davis and Jimmy James Canales to the roster of artists representing 19 states in the U.S. and Instanbul, Turkey.

On the back of the Hausmann's contribution to the show, titled "A Little Bit of Quiet," he scrawled, "It seems like we are all looking for a little bit of this." And that is, in large part, what "The White Show" provides.

Most of the works — drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, multimedia — are predominantly, if not entirely, done in a variation (or variations) of the infinitely varied titular hue.

The collective effect of the pieces, displayed against white gallery walls, is one of calm. Not to equate quiet and calm with serious and peaceful. Many of the artworks in "The White Show" amuse, provoke and unsettle — sometimes all at once.

The show includes a grouping of six postcards from a series by Jada Schumacher of St. Paul, Minn. Each is a different gradation of white, inspired by the names of actual towns, including White Cloud, Kan., Snowflake, Ariz., and Pearl, Ind. Then there are Josh Willis' "little paintings that couldn't," as the artist from Brooklyn, N.Y., describes them in his artist statement. Three small works in oil on panel?comprise the "Amnesia" series.

Lance Cheney's "White Brush 1" is a visual and tactile delight. The artist, a New York native who grew up in the industrial brush-making business, created a topographical map using different textures and densities of bristles. Meanwhile, T.R. Ericsson, a Brooklyn-based artist who recently sold a piece to the Whitney Museum of American Art, has fun with marble in "Memorial Day." The piece consists of a series of answering machine messages etched on a sparkly white plaque.

Emotionally weightier works include Maura Schaffer's "The Dominator." The sculpture by the Lafayette, Ind.-based artist is a fraught tableaux made out of wire and fabric in which a family dynamic is represented by anthropomorphic furniture. The chair at the taller, wider end of a sloping dinner table looms over the other chairs, which seem to cower submissively.

Matthew Farley's "Tako-Tsubo," a sculpture made out of six-pack rings affixed to a steel frame, is a reference to octopus traps used by Japanese fishermen — and perhaps "broken heart syndrome," a heart condition named for the traps. It is about "the traps we set for ourselves," according to the artist's statement.

One piece almost didn't make it to San Antonio for the show. Brooklyn-based Turkish artist Ardan Ozmenoglu's "Image Not Available" was held up in customs.

"So 'Image Not Available' was not available," Hausmann says.

Luckily, he was able to get a copy of the text-based work. Now Hausmann wants to give Ozmenoglu a solo show.

"It's probably going to be a room full of them, just 'Image Not Available.'?" he says. "Because it's such a strong piece."

"The White Show" is at Hausmann Millworks, 925 W. Russell Place, through the end of April. A closing party for Contemporary Art Month will be 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Call (210) 884-6390.